Obama Camp Highlights Corbett Ultrasound Redux (Watch Video)

Governor Tom Corbett recently spoke about his now-infamous remarks regarding the proposed ultrasound mandate. President Barack Obama’s campaign and the PA Democrats jumped all over it.

In another example of the “war on women” campaign theme from the Dems, OFA (Obama’s campaign) and the Pa. Democratic Party forwarded reporters the video above. OFA sought to use the clip to tag presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

“Mitt Romney and his allies like Governor Tom Corbett just don’t get it. It is extreme policies like Governor Corbett’s that have left Romney and Republicans underwater with women,” said Obama for America Pennsylvania Press Secretary Jennifer Austin.

Corbett tried once again to make a semantic point about whether it was physically possible to force anyone to watch anything.

“The question was asked of me – and if you saw the whole press conference, and the media there didn’t bat an eye at it – I said, ‘You can’t make somebody watch it. You can put the monitor in front of them but you can’t make them watch it.’”

It’s not the first presidential foray into the issue. Obama himself referenced Corbett’s comments at a fundraiser last week. And when Corbett first endorsed Romney earlier in April, the “close your eyes” remark were front and center in the Obama campaign’s response.

Important note: the ultrasound mandate is now so far on the back burner in Harrisburg that it has zero chance of seeing the light of day, let alone passing – rendering the entire issue as moot except in political terms.

The clip above is just a small portion of the whole interview, though it does not take Corbett’s words out of context. You can view the complete exchange here:

In the full clip, Corbett explains that he supports a mandate for non-invasive ultrasounds because of his pro-life views. He says 30,000 abortions occur per year in Pennsylvania.

“If an ultrasound, which is not invasive at all, we convince somebody maybe to carry that baby to term and give it up for adoption and save that life, I think that’s the way to go.”

That may not interest the Obama campaign, but it certainly caught the attention of PA Democrats. Many supporters of the ultrasound mandate had claimed that the issue was about medical safety, not abortion rights. Corbett essentially wiped away that distinction.

While OFA focused on Romney, the PA Dems were content to jab Corbett.

“Gov. Corbett doesn’t get it. His remarks are demeaning toward women and completely out of touch with Pennsylvanians,” said Lindsay Fritchman, a spokeswoman with the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. “Gov. Corbett believes that we cannot trust women to make their own medical decisions, and when he has been challenged, he has simply doubled down on his insensitive and demeaning remarks.”

As I recall, according to the PA Department of Health, 93 percent of abortions in Pennsylvania occur in the first trimester when the fetus is smaller than the tip of your pinky finger. Now I’m not a woman and clearly most of this bill’s proponents aren’t either, but it was explained to me by a woman who is familiar with such things (possessing a uterus, as women tend to do, and being familiar with the resultant medical care that accompanies possession of such) that the only kind of ultrasound at that stage that is going to pick up anything is a transvaginal ultrasound, unless you just want a blank picture of a woman’s ovaries and uterus before the procedure. A transvaginal ultrasound IS an invasive procedure by its very definition. So 93 percent of Pennsylvania abortions will require an unnecessary procedure that is quite invasive, by the Governor’s own standards (“as long as it’s external, not internal”).

So I see three possibilities here: either the Governor is lying, really does want to waste money on a completely pointless procedure that won’t detect the fetus in 93 percent of cases, or hasn’t bothered to find out how these things work. Surely, there must be an OB-GYN out there who can draw him a picture.